1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to air fresheners and more particularly to a small clip on type primarily intended for use in automobiles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Clip on automobile air freshener units are many and varied and commonly attach in some convenient manner to the grill at the outlet of a forced air system or HVAC (e.g. air conditioning system) in the cabin of a motor vehicle. Many of the known devices fail to regulate and/or control discharge of the fragrance and/or maintain a seal tight enclosure for the volatile liquid/fragrance during non use and thus have a life span highly based on time rather than usage.
Examples of known air freshener units are illustrated in the following US design patents assigned to Aromate Industries Co., Ltd.: Design Pat. D465,019 granted Oct. 29, 2002 and entitled Automobile Air Freshener Assembly; Design Pat. D485,341 granted Jan. 13, 2004 and entitled Clip-On Air Freshener Assembly; and Design Pat. D485,340 granted Jan. 13, 2004 entitled Combined Automobile Freshener and Fan Assembly.
The foregoing design patents, D465,019 and D485,341, each disclose a two part housing with a lip on the lower end thereof for detachably retaining therein a bottle and a clip projecting from the rear face of the housing for clipping the device onto presumably the grill of an automobile air conditioning system. The housing has openings in the front and rear face thereof that presumably align with a wick projecting from the bottle.
The device illustrated in the D485,340 patent further incorporates therein a power driven fan.
Further examples of motor vehicle air freshener devices are found in the following: U.S. Pat. No. 4,523,870 granted Jun. 18, 1985 to Donald Spector, U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,467 granted Feb. 4, 2003 to D. J. Buisink et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,194 granted Aug. 24, 2004 to L. Schneiderbauer, and U.S. Patent Application 2003/0007787 published Jan. 9, 2003 entitled Evaporator Device to S. Rymer.
Of the foregoing references, U.S. Pat. No. 6,514,467 is considered the most closely related to the present device in that it includes a wick cover that is movable back and forth axially along the exposed diffusing portion of the wick. The cover however is not exposed through an opening in the housing and therefore does not give to the user any visual indication of the amount of wick exposed to air flowing through the device during usage of the same. Also the drive for moving the cover differs and there is no groove in the wick supporting collar to ensure a good seal that prevents leakage during non use of the device.